The Rebels’ swimming team began its regular season last week.  The new swimmers started last week on Tuesday, January 16, and they practiced every day until Friday.  The returning JV swimmers began on Monday, January 22, and practiced all week.  The returning varsity swimmers start next week on Monday, January 29.  The swim team has a mix of both returning and new swimmers. This diversity may prove difficult for the team captains and coaches to plan organized meets and practices.  

In regards to the organization of the team, Derek Rodriguez, a returning varsity swimmer and a captain, shared his thoughts. Rodriguez would like to work on communicating with everyone on the team more efficiently.  The swim practice consists of a half hour of dryland and a hour of swimming.  Dryland is a thirty minute period before swimming during which the swimmers stretch and warm-up.  One of the many responsibilities of a captain is to keep the organization of the team during this period.

During the first week of swim practice, the new swimmers were introduced to the coaches, the process of the practice routine, and the fundamentals of swimming. Rodriguez stated, “The past week was amazing. I love introducing competitive swim to people that have never done it.”  The swim captains need to attend the first week of practice to help the new swimmers.

Emilie Llopis, a new swimmer, felt the week was “hard but fun” and predicted, “I think the season is going to go well if we can perfect everything. Then, we’ll do really good because we all try really hard.” As a new swimmer, she feels that the hardest part of swim is the “fast paced practices.” However, the new swimmers need to be well conditioned for the upcoming swim meets.

The Rebels’ swimming team kicked off the season last week with four straight days of practice for the new swimmers. The JV and varsity swimmers will return in the upcoming weeks to fully kick off the 2018 swim season.  The four coaches, Brian Reed, Haylee Reed, Brian Yep, and Mark Thibault, along with the swim captains, are looking forward to what looks like a promising year for the Rebel swim team.